Re: [ubl-dev] Free UBL NDR 2.1 schema generator

[Stephen D Green <stephen.green@documentengineeringservices.com>]

I would think a good example for a walkthrough would be something

for which UBL users are likely to appreciate the need, such as the

use case where they need to create a small extension schema for

a UBL invoice. It shouldn't be too hard to find a specific example (but

I might be out-of-date with my knowledge of what isn't already covered

by the 2.1 UBL invoice). In the past a utility invoice extension or one

for billing hours worked (by consultant or contractor, say) would have

been good ones and maybe one or other would still be appropriate.

 

It might start like this:

 

"You are a consultant doing work for a lot of companies who require

their invoices to be presented using UBL and charge for those which

aren't. The UBL invoice doesn't quite cover your own needs for billing

and since you are an IT consultant experienced with electronic billing

systems there are many of your customers willing for you to design

them an extension schema for those extra items. The only requirement

is their systems are designed to prefer a schema which is compliant

with the UBL NDR so you need the extension itself to be so compliant.

You need to keep the cost down because you will not see any ROI

on purchasing special software as it is unlikely you will be doing this

again all that often. What do you do to ensure your schema complies

with (conforms to??) the UBL NDR without buying special software?

 

First there is a readily available stylesheet which gives some assurance

of compliance; a reference implementation of sorts which for your

purposes is likely to give you a schema which your UBL-conformant

customer systems can use. The stylesheet however requires the 

input to be in a certain format called genericode and a particular 

implementation of genericode for that matter. What is genericode? ..." 

 

Then it would, say, go on to explain genericode and the usage of it

for model definitions for UBL. Then go on to ways to get your design

into that genericode format with enough assurance that the stylesheet

will work (e.g. what tolerance is required here?).

 

Once it has covered the UBL model methodology and something

about stylesheets (a plug for a certain definitive XSLT book here and

one on UBL perhaps Ken!) it could finally broaden to consider other

situations where a UBL NDR conformant schema and UBL methodolgy

might also be useful other than for actual uses of UBL (e.g. other

domains and maybe some consideration of where a schema based

on a data dictionary might be advantageous).

 

I guess the main things out of scope (perhaps it would say so) are

where a schema constrains an execution syntax/semantic (like XSLT)

where data/document is not the primary purpose or where other designs

are required or special constraints foreign to UBL are imposed. Not

every XML application is best defined in the form of a UBL NDR schema. 

 

Perhaps there would be further reading links for those especially

interested in CCTS, including one to the alternative CEFACT ATG NDR.

Best regards

Steve
---
Stephen D Green

On 24 October 2011 12:53, G. Ken Holman <gkholman@cranesoftwrights.com> wrote:

At 2011-10-24 07:16 +0100, Stephen D Green wrote:

I would think a walkthrough kind of tutorial for using it might be of
great benefit to a beginner wanting to try generating some UBL
NDR conformant schemas.

I'm up for that, but I would need direction as to what aspects of process need illumination in such a tutorial.  I'm a geek writing documentation for a stylesheet, and I tried to make the documentation as clear as possible ... but I know some in this audience have not been receptive to some of my stylesheet documentation in the past.  I put more effort into my books.

The principles of CCTS 2.01 and the use of 11179 in modeling the information and defining the spreadsheets is covered in my book I announced a couple weeks ago is now available for free preview:

 http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/ubl-dev/201110/msg00000.html

Working top down, what would you recommend to be in the table of contents of such a tutorial?  Keeping in mind that my book will also be updated so that students of my instructor-led training classes can use this stylesheet on day 2 of the 2-day class.  Oh, and what about the CVA/genericode work for code lists and data type qualifications (as opposed to qualified data types)?  I have a full-day instructor-led training class for that and its associated book also for a free preview:

 http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/clr-dev/201110/msg00000.html

Remember, too, that this stylesheet works in conjunction with the upcoming UBL NDR 2.1, and the documentation will be updated to include hyperlinks into the NDR document for each rule that the stylesheet implements.  Perhaps I should await the production of that document before working on a tutorial.

The reason this stylesheet was written was to prove that the new UBL NDR 2.1 has everything needed and nothing that is not needed (a concern about the UBL NDR 2.0).  And so that other projects unrelated to UBL can use the UBL NDR 2.1 and this stylesheet to produce their own schemas.

Anyone downloading my package can recreate the UBL 2.1 PRD2 schemas from the included UBL 2.1 PRD2 genericode _expression_ of the spreadsheets.  Hopefully that illustrates that other projects can get the same results for themselves.

Perhaps people would write their own
spreadsheet-to-genericode (or even something like an XML form
such as with XForms or Infopath -to-genericode) toolset to use
with these stylesheets

Exactly!  Which is one reason I used OASIS genericode as the vendor- and product-neutral _expression_ of the ISO/IEC 11179 CCTS V2.01 values reflected from a given business document model.  Users of the stylesheet can use any organization or maintenance environment for their model.  XML (using genericode) is playing the proper role of bridging two systems (model maintenance and schema production) without either system knowing how the other works.

(say, until they are ready to invest in a more fancy product).

Or build a more fancy product!  My copyright allows this work to be used commercially by others provided the work is properly recognized.  The execution time is negligible in the scheme of things in a product.

I hope to get attention from people to buy my books and my three days of instructor-led training, I'm not trying to sell the stylesheet (though I'll take donated money for its use! :{)} ).

Perhaps some may be interested in hiring me for consulting (or other consultants using these free stylesheets) regarding how to create all the technical artefacts (not just the schemas) for their projects.

(queue radio voice) "Operators are standing by!"

Thanks, Steve!

. . . . . . . . . . . Ken

--
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